The Chess Game

Chapter 1: The First Lesson

"Oh, our first lesson of the year. I am sooooo excited," exclaimed Jack.

"I know, right? I heard we will get to learn about skewers this year!" Lily exclaimed right back.

"What even is a skewer?" asked Jamie. Lily opened her mouth to say something but at that moment the teachers walked in and everyone went quiet. The teachers in the room opened their laptops and automatically switched everyone's devices to mimic their screens, depending on what piece they were. "Oooh!" everyone went. Strangely, the teachers seemed to pretend that sound was not made. "Attention everyone, please listen up," the 1st teacher announced confidently.

"I am Mr Kowalski and this is Mr Browne" Mr Kowalski, the 2nd teacher explained to everyone. Mr Browne pressed a button on his laptop and quickly, everyone had a number from 1 to 10 on their devices. Again everyone went, "Oooh!" This time the teachers did not ignore it and with a hint of something that sounded like anger, Mr Kowalski requested, "Could we please stop the sounds?" At this, everyone went quiet as they did not want to be given a detention on their first day. "Anyway," Mr Browne continued, "You will now see a number on your device. Your first task is to find everyone who has the same number as you. Once you have found everyone, you will enter the number on your device of your teammate's number, which is below the group number. Everyone in the first group to do this will earn 5 house points." Before Mr Browne could ask, 'Any Questions?' everyone started running across the room as if they were mad chickens without a head. Even Lily had already run off. "What number are you? I'm in group 8," asked Jamie. "I'm 3," answered Jack. And just like that, they ran off in opposite directions. After around 5 minutes or so, everyone was in their groups but group 4 had won with group 8 right behind. "Hi there!' Jamie enthusiastically exclaimed. Only one of them actually said, "Hello there!" back to Jamie with the same level of energy as Jamie had used. The rest of group 8 just mumbled something that sounded like a 'Hey' to him. Realizing that trying to make friends with his group would not work, he tried to switch to the Messages app to contact his friends, but his laptop was locked onto the 'Find a Group' app by Mr Kowalski. So much for that, he thought, almost out loud. Mr Kowalski stood up once more. He explained, "These are the groups you will go to every MP skills lesson. You will then stay in these groups for the warm-up exercise before choosing a group of 3 from your group and the next group. We will then finish off the class by completing an individual task. Any Questions?" After that, Mr Browne unlocked everyone's devices. Many people went onto the 'Ask Questions' app and started tapping away. Jamie, being naughty, seized the opportunity and switched to the 'Message' app. Although he knew this was wrong, he texted his friends on the group chat. Jamie wrote, 'Hi guys, what group are you in? I'm in 8," As he waited patiently for the three dots indicating someone was responding, he didn't realize that one of his group mates was staring over his shoulder. "Hey, what are you doing?" the kid asked, suspicion in the tone of his voice. He quickly pressed the CTRL and L keys to lock his device. "Nu, Nu, Nothing," Jamie stuttered quickly. "I saw you texting someone but don't worry. I'm not going to tell anybody." The kid told Jamie, who was relieved to hear that. "By the way, my name's Max. What's yours?" he politely inquired. "My name's Jamie. It's nice to know that there is someone in my group who I can talk with." Jamie replied. He was starting to like this kid but he still didn't completely trust him. As he decided whether to trust Max, a notification popped up on his phone. Lily had responded 'Hey, I'm in Group 7. We could be in a group with someone from your group.' Jack had also written a message but he didn't have time to read it because at that moment, his device was locked by Mr Browne and a message under it simply stated. 'Do not open any apps not appropriate to the lesson' Damn it, he thought silently. "Hey, Jamie," he heard Max's voice quietly from behind him. I turned around to talk to him but before he could say anything Mr Kowalski stood up and announced, "Could we please listen up now? I will answer the question sent to me now."  There was a teacher assistant behind us so Jamie couldn't talk to Max even though he urgently wanted to. Before Mr Kowalski started to read out the first question, Mr Browne interrupted, "So sorry to interrupt Mr Kowalksi but I would just like to say that I have seen a couple of people, I will not mention names, but I have seen people on apps that they should not be. Can this please be a reminder to all of you that this is strictly not allowed?" Jamie quickly swallowed. Mr Kowalski went on and answered about 20 questions and then finished. "For our warm-up task, I would like you to, in a minute, with your groups, create a poster on the Canva app, about forks."

Despite all the moans in the room at this, Max loved technology and was excited to get started. While everyone kept grunting in frustration because they simply could not work out how to use this new app, Max was spellbound by the app and created a meticulous design. Even the teachers were amazed by Max's profound skills as when they came over to check Max's design, they stood there with their jaws open for a few seconds before praising Max. He was clearly designed to be a tech genius. After a few more minutes of grunts and moans, Mr Browne locked everyone's devices. Like a bunch of flattened balloons, they all went "Noooo!" Unexpectedly, Mr Browne let out a small chuckle at this response. Mr Kowalski then went on, "We see that most of you don't have a very good experience with Canva but not to worry." At this, everyone nodded their heads in agreement. Well, nearly everyone, everyone but Max who was busy on his laptop. Wait what? Out of nowhere, totally forgetting that the teachers were talking, Jamie audibly exclaimed, "How did you unlock your laptop?" Suddenly, all eyes were on me. Uh oh, he thought silently. "Who said that?" Mr Kowalski demanded. Like everyone around Jamie was his enemy and Mr Kowalski had just said "Who should I eat first?", fingers were pointing his way. He could even feel a bead of sweat dribble down my forehead slowly but Jamie was so shocked he didn't even wipe it off his face. "You," Mr Browne told the room, pointing his finger at Jamie. "Come up here right now!" Slowly and awkwardly, Jamie had no choice but to walk up the stairs to the teacher's desk and await his punishment. From here, he could see a few groups of people smirking at him. Lily was just open-jawed staring at Jamie, like this was all a movie. "Now, if you think whatever you have to say is more important than what we have to say, you are wrong," Mr Kowalski sternly told Jamie. "Do you want to end up being captured in your chess game?" he asked without waiting for Jamie to answer him. "Because we are here to teach you to make smart decisions in your game." He made a gesture for Jamie to sit down. Jamie wanted to cry by now but he couldn't in front of all these children. That would really make a bad impression on his first day. "Come down for detention at 5:00pm down in my office!" Mr Browne commanded, handing Jamie a detention slip. Jamie stared down at the slip. He was deeply upset by this small little paper. A detention? On my first day! Oh no! Jamie thought. "Now go sit down, and pay attention!" Mr Kowalski ordered. Jamie's eyes were battling his tears, pushing them back but the tears won. They were running down his face like rain. He sat down at the desk, wiping his eyes. To his utter surprise, Max didn't look angry at him one bit. When he caught Jamie staring at him, he explained, "I'm not mad at you because I know you didn't do it on purpose." At these words, Jamie let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, a loud siren came out of the speakers. Everyone covered their ears. "Everyone, line up quickly and silently." Panicking, everyone ran to line up immediately. What was happening?  Jamie thought out loud.